Democracy for Vancouver

Either Bush really is Cheney’s puppet, told what to say when and kept in the dark until the last moment; or, he’s a craven, power-mad asshole:

The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) took U.S. friends and foes by surprise after years of strident rhetoric from Washington accusing Iran of pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program.

Bush warned just last month that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War III.

And speaking of craven, power-mad assholes, here’s Stephen Hadley, yesterday:

Q There had to be more than an inkling before today that this information, this intelligence, that the Iranians had an ongoing nuclear weapons program was incorrect. So why wasn’t — why then would the President allow it or advise to go ahead with ratcheting up the rhetoric, instead of toning it down…?

MR. HADLEY: Two things. One, when the President was told that we had some additional information, he was basically told: stand down; needs to be evaluated; we’ll come to you and tell you what we think it means…

Q The President — you said the President was told to stand down on that –

MR. HADLEY: No, I said just the opposite. I said the President was told, we have some information, we have some new information not to stand down — said, we have some new information; give us some time to analyze it, and we will come to you and tell you what we think it means.
…
Q But was he given that advice before or after the World War III comment?

MR. HADLEY: I’ll have to — I’ll have to look.

Q Which was on October 20th.

MR. HADLEY: From my mind, it doesn’t make any difference, because the World War III comment you characterize as stepping up the rhetoric. I would say it was making a point that the President and we have been making for two or three years, that the international community has to exert more pressure because Iran needs to suspend its enrichment program.
…
Q So was it recent weeks that this intelligence came in?

MR. HADLEY: What the intelligence community has said is in the last few months…

But CIA analysts say different:

Two CIA officers have revealed Dick Cheney tried to silence dissidents within US intelligence who contradicted him over Iran’s nuclear case.

“The publication of a position paper on Iran, bringing together the views of the various American intelligence agencies, was adjourned for more than a year,” ISNA reported from Le Monde.

According to a former CIA official who was involved in the preparation of the fact sheet, known as the National Intelligence Estimate, brings together the analysis of the sixteen American intelligence agencies, the report has been ready for a year and gives an account of assessments different from that espoused by the White House and Dick Cheney.
…
“The White House wants a document which it could use as evidence to justify its strategy towards Iran,” he added.

…[D]espite the pressure, several analysts refuse to assume the alarmist conclusions defended by Dick Cheney, because they consider that these conclusions are not supported by evidence.

What’s incredibly frustrating is that anyone who has been paying attention had surmised long before yesterday’s release of the NIE that Iran does not have a nuclear program that rises to the level of an immediate threat, that the NIE was being delayed while Cheney bludgeoned the analysts into line, and that Cheney and Bush have been pushing to attack Iran with the same level of vitriol and deceit that they did on Iraq. But the zeitgeist seems to be that this is business as usual, as if this is the way we should expect our President and Vice President to behave.

These are shrunken times indeed.

[emphasis added.]